ON THINGS IN GENERAL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 12713, 16 November 1904, Page 1 (Supplement)

ON THINGS IN GENERAL.

THE DOLPHIN DINNER. November 13 is a great day it) Bristol, fee--sii? the date of the Colston celebrations. As November 13 fell on a Sunday this year, no iltabi the jollifications would have been held last Monday. One of these functions is 'the Dolphin Dinner, one of three dinners eatoa annually in Bristol, in commemoration of Edward Colston. Born in Bristol in 1636, and dying, in 1721, he was a West India merchant, who devoted the greater pail of his wealth to charity. - He built and endowed many 'almshouses and schools, which still flourish, hi the western city. As fee spent much of his time in London, he also assisted metropolitan charities. Aluis- , . ■bcflises'aad a ssenool of his founding still exist at Mort'iiikc and Sheen; to his old .school, Christ's '.Hospital, tie gave £2000, ' and to St. Biirtholomew's Hospital £5000. He presented £6000 to Queen Anne's bounty fund. Colston's known public charities were over £70,000. and in private 7 gifts be was equally generous. In politics he : was a Tory, and for the three years, 1710-1713. be ««$ eeaioi member ol ■ Parliament for Bristol. In 11749 the Bristol Tories formed the Dolphin .Society to commemorate Colston's life and cany am his charities. Nine years later a similar society; the " Grateful," of no political colour, was formed, and in. 1769 the Whigs : established the " Anchor Society** in honour of Colston, Tory though fee had always. been. ; Ever since these three societies have met on November 15 {Colston's birthday), and after attending church have dined and made a collection for charitable purposes. The sum thus raised is spent in- providing old age pensions of 5s (4 week for aged men and women. The day is specially marked by the churches of Bristol in turn maintaining a muffled peal of bells from midnight to midiaight. The conversion of these Colston dinners to political ends is of modern origin. At one of them the late Samuel Morley. M.P., perpetrated his : only epigram: "Society,*' he ■aid, "would certainly be all the better if political views were always advocated with charity, and if aH charity: were politic.'* FKEETHOUGHT HUMOUR. "A few ■ weeks ago, commenting on. the Freethinkers' Congress at Rome, I stated th.it it "struck me as peculiar that people like Prnfwsoi Haeckel, wlio assert that all human activity is governed by the iron law of necessity, and tha: there is no room a this world' .©j; ours lot - human freedom, shou-l call themselves Freethinkers. The Jv.iler reports "i>i the proceedings of the Congress have now arrived, and. these reveal the fact that Freethinkers are just like other folk. They have their little inconsistencies and weaknesses life tits rest of us. They are only human after all. The Saturday Review refers I-a the Congress as follows: — :' It is a ludicrous thing that a number of ' •' people who have ho other boric! of unity than a common sense that they disbelieve in 'rather more, tilings than the rest of the world, should ho'.d a congress. The very title of the Freethinkers' Congress implies that the* are "a congeries of irreconcilable elements," and the proceedings at, Rome emphasised the d-Juiitioti. A member who . ventured-i» say that all political opinions . oughts a, be respected , was. howled down. It was a curious way of asserting the privilege of free thought. With a similar absence of humour, the members made the proposal to erect a monument to universal peace, the occasion of such an uproar that the president was forced to flee, and the warring members shouted at "och other without restraint. A very large proportion of the members came from Firance and many of them from Lyons. This excessive representation naturally gave j , some predominance 'to French politico, and j the question of '.he . separation of. Church and State -was the one subject on which any unity of opiniott was expressed.. r On the j question how die separation was to be ef- | fected no valuable suggestions were made, an absence of coiistructive" criticism which, as an unusually clear-headed deputy re- j marked, went to show "the bartkroptcj of j free thought." ■".'■>.-..•■■"s : | THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CONGRESS. ! i ' The ' Roman , Catholic Congress at Mel-! flourae, in which Bishop »Len ill an,, of Auck- i .land, took part, seems to have hud ■ one or.' two * amusing incidents. It is one of the profound -beliefs of the Irishman {says a writer in the Australasian) : 1 that even- Englishman drops his*' h's," and it- is. probably his anxiety to avoid being : ,' mistaken fair an Englishman that leads-him to exaggerate his own "h's" in words like "what" and "why." Last week the subject was informally discussed among several of the brothers after the adjournment of the Congress, and one related an instance of an English priest who succeeded la mispronouncing every word of a verse! of lite Bible, by giving out to a congrega-'i lion, unanimously from tlie Ou!d Sod, the , text: "Hi ham 'oo Hi ham." One of the ; delegates at the Conspress amused his fel- | low-clergymen by- relating a story against himself. "-The black sheep of my flock is C>'(ir;tdy/' he -raid: "only foi O'Grady, I'd have a comparatively easy- time; but what- ] ever I save on the rest. I have to make it I aft up in trouble over O'Grady. Just after i I was made a MonMgnor, they brought me ; word that O'G-radv had broken out again, ■ mil I set off to a place where I was pretty i sore i'd find him. ' Weft. O'Grady." I said, j *so you're here again.' He looked up with I a bleary eye, and he said: 'An' phwbat if Oi am, daneV 'Now.' said 5. 'in the first place, vou're not to mJI me dean any more.' 'An ' why fiat?' asked O'Grady. * Because Ihe Pope ha* made me a Monsiffnor.' O'Grady looked hard at me for a few seconds. * An" phwhat did 'he do thai fur?* he said. I put. on a severe look, and answered: "Because I've built some churches, and cared I for the poor, and kept: a few blackguards like von. O'Orady. *:-■ straight a? I could.' 1 O'Grady didn't wince. He just looked at me ip the same hard way. Then he said: j 'Arrah. if Sis Holiness knew us much I do about yer, he'd never ha' done it.' " ; PRESIDENT BOOSEVELI. | The strentmas man. Theodore Roosevelt, it;il holds ii Tiro .is President- of the United j Stales, retaining his position by a great I majority over Judge Parker. It is stated that President Roosevelt, as far back as the beginning of last year prophesied that Judge : P*rker would be his Democratic opponent . «l the Presidential eleci"ion. The prophecy; has been fulfilled. The judge is the son of a ! firmer, and himself guided the plough in his teens, earning enough to pay his college i fees. He was enrolled as a lawyer at 21. : He took a hand at State politics, and once Won New York State for the Democrats. High; legal office ; followed his political suc'''but ■since his elevation to ..the Bench he has . refused to interfere in politics. In »i« leisure Judge Parker finds recreation in managing" a small farm, and in breeding i«edi"rse cattle He is a tall, handsome njan? with old-fashioned manners, and has • fine legal library in his conn house near,': New York. "While the President feels that he is the property of all the; people," i twvs a recent 'Writer, each man as a man a* much as anv other, and acts accordingly. he is not f democratic', in the sense of the American -.word as laid down in the Declaration of Independence. He is the first President who has dared to say that, contrary to the inspired document, all men are not v.'rn free and equal. *** does not think ■"*;..; the ignorant horde that swarms to the country from overcrowded Europe should iave a right to select the Government ; though he would appoint a son of these people, if he was the man for the place, to the highest office in the gift of the Government, Tn other words. ■■'From; every man fc.c.'l-dmi; to hi* ability, to every man ac-cu-dm;' to Wis needs, is, Theodore Roosemotto." ■ ROOSKVKLT AND THE 'BEAR. ■ There is a story told of the President that illustrates the command lie has over his &»rves. Roosevelt some years ago was a-!i.:uur gn.czU, when he and his guide riiexpsvlediv came upon a oear, who charged th«e. Roosevelt s very short-sighted, and carries three', pairs of glasses, one to read with, one to walk with,/ and one to shoot with. When .the-bear charged, Mr. Roosew*l was wearing his walking glasses, and, ,

, to quote the words of his guide in telling ■he story, "' when I .told him that the beast i was upon him he coolly took off his glasses, folded them up, put them , away in his pocket, took out and wiped his "shooting s| glasses and put them on as quietly and s deliberately as if there was not a bear in . the whole country By the time he had ' got his glasses adjusted* the bear was near, i but he pulled his gun and killed him in his 3 : tracks, and did not' seem the least bit a excited." . The General. I '